TCS way ahead of the field in race of crorepati executives

About a quarter of these 91 crorepatis in fiscal 2017 have spent their entire careers at the Mumbai-headquartered largest software services company in the country.Jochelle Mendonca | ET Bureau | July 20, 2017, 07:14 IST

BENGALURU: Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest software services company, paid salaries of over Rs 1 crore to 91 employees in India in fiscal 2017, significantly more than rivals Infosys and Wipro, according to data accessed by ET.

About a quarter of these crorepatis — 22, to be precise — have spent their entire careers at the Mumbai-headquartered company.

Infosys has 51 executives earning more than that threshold in India, about 16 per cent of whom have been with the company throughout their careers. Wipro has 61 such employees, about 27 per cent of whom have spent the entire span of their careers with the company. Of the 91 TCS employees earning over Rs 8.5 lakh a month, 13 had been with the company for only a part of the year.

"TCS is much bigger than Infosys or Wipro, and executive stability has been a defining factor for the company," an analyst with a Mumbai-brokerage told ET, requesting anonymity. "They also tend to promote from within. It is rare for an executive to come in from outside," he added.

Unlike Infosys and Wipro, TCS does not disclose the number of executives earning over Rs 1 crore in its annual report. TCS did not respond to a request seeking comments. To be sure, executives based outside India earn significantly higher salaries that are denominated in foreign currencies. Two examples would be president Surya Kant, who runs TCS’ North America, UK and Europe operations, and Amur Lakshminarayanan, who oversees the Japan business. The data accessed by ET excludes employees based abroad. TCS, which closed FY17 with revenues of $17.5 billion, has over 380,000 employees compared with under 200,000 at Infosys and over 180,000 at Wipro.

Interestingly, among the TCS crorepatis is a 70-year-old — Barindra Sanyal, who joined in 2003 from Tata SSL Limited. Sanyal, who is vice-president (finance), earned Rs 1.89 crore in the last financial year. "He has some skills the company needs and is also involved with the TCS Foundation," a company executive told ET.

ET had reported in June that Infosys has over 1,800 employees in overseas locations who earn over Rs 1 crore. Of these, 150 were hired in FY17. Over 700 of the crorepati employees were recruited overseas after Vishal Sikka took charge as CEO, the data showed.

A glance at TCS’ top leadership clearly shows the company’s preference for in-house talent. Former CEO N Chandrasekaran, now the Tata Sons chairman, was hired by the company straight from campus in 1987. Chief operating officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam, TCS’ human resources head Ajoyendra Mukherjee, presidents Pratik Pal and Debashis Ghosh — each of whom runs multi-billion-dollar units — also count TCS as their only employer. In addition to the 22 TCS lifers, 10 others — including current CEO Rajesh Gopinathan — have joined from other Tata Group companies.

These employees happen to be among the top earners. Mukherjee, for instance, had a gross salary of Rs 4.65 crore in fiscal 2017. Pal, who heads retail, consumer products, transport and hospitality, took home Rs 3.44 crore. Ghosh, who is in charge of manufacturing, life sciences, and energy, earned Rs 3.29 crore.

Krishnan Ramanujam, who was appointed president (business and technology services) in May, earned Rs 2.87 crore. Ramanujam was earlier with TCS Financial Services.

TCS has followed a strategy of splitting large verticals and horizontals into smaller businesses, helping these units become nimbler and creating additional management capacity. Last year, Infosys announced that it would follow a similar model.

Indian IT companies are staring at lower margins as they start hiring in larger numbers abroad in the wake of protectionist rhetoric in major markets. Onsite hiring in digital and design could cost a great deal more than these companies are used to paying till now.

"If the Indian firms are going to capture a significant portion of the digital market then they will have to aggressively hire across all levels. This will need to be accomplished in a red-hot employment market, likely driving up costs further," said Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of IT consultancy Everest Research.